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CU's 'Sondheim' is dated but fun

By Kelly Dean Hansen

Camera Classical Music Writer

Posted:
04/25/2014 09:57:46 PM MDT

Updated:
04/26/2014 07:11:47 AM MDT

Baritone Frank Fainer, foreground, is tasked on opening night and Saturday with playing Stephen Sondheim in CU Opera's production of "Side By Side By Sondheim." (Glenn J. Asakawa / University of Colorado)

Where: Music Theatre, Imig Music Building, 18th and Euclid, University of Colorado-Boulder campus

Tickets: Both performances are sold out. Call 303-492-8008 for wait-list information

A funny thing happened on the way to the finale.

As enjoyable and splendidly staged as CU Opera's musical revue "Side By Side By Sondheim" can be, it still must overcome all the inherent traps of this once ubiquitous genre.

An evening devoted to a single artist's musical and poetic legacy is a high honor, but when that composer is still alive and working, it becomes at least a little problematic. "Side By Side By Sondheim" was assembled in 1976, and Sondheim has written much of his best-known music since then.

Thus, toward the end of Thursday's opening performance in the intimate CU Music Theatre, while baritone Frank Fainer sang "Could I Leave You?" with joyfully campy abandon, a perceptive audience member might have picked up on just how much the song sounds like something out of "Into the Woods" — a musical that wasn't written for another 11 years after this revue was first staged.

That's not a negative, but it does date the show. Director Leigh Holman has embraced this aspect by staging the performance on a beautiful set based on Sondheim's apartment at the time and by making the nine singers into characters resembling real people from the composer's circle (with Fainer playing Sondheim himself). This creates an attractive ambience and allows the audience to bask in the music. Projected images of playbills from various historical productions, all matching the sources of the song being presented, are another lovely addition.

And while there isn't really any plot, there is certainly a fair amount of acting — in addition to some terrific singing. The cast uses students from CU's musical theater program as well as its opera singers, and this creates a noticeable stylistic (but not qualitative) variance.

Again, this is not a bad thing. While the delightful Brianna Provda does not have the sheer vocal power of soprano Adara Towler, she can deliver a rapid-fire patter song with an astounding virtuosity. In fact, Provda should be given recognition just for memorizing as much text as she did.

Thus, when Towler and mezzo-soprano Victoria Peña (who plays a version of Elaine Stritch) sing an emotional duet from "West Side Story" (Leonard Bernstein's music with Sondheim's lyrics), there is a satisfying contrast from which no singer suffers by comparison. Newcomer Daniel Thompson, a recent Fairview High School graduate, is as affecting in his simple "Anyone Can Whistle" as seasoned CU tenor Max Hosmer is in his soaring vocal lines.

There are several songs that are totally unfamiliar, and the engaging narration (provided by the singers) helps the audience become acquainted with them. But the balance between the known and the unknown is carefully calibrated. Peña's heartfelt "Send in the Clowns" is placed right before a comic duet from "Do I Hear a Waltz." It's not exactly mood whiplash but, rather, a contrast that such a production needs to maintain interest.

The show has its risque elements, but it is never really vulgar and, thus, probably safe for all teenagers. In one delightful scene, the song "Barcelona," soprano Luisa Marie Rodriguez loses just enough of her inhibitions, without any self-consciousness, to bring the action to life. Like Provda, she exudes joy throughout the evening. Austin Cline is by turns delightful and sardonic. Lane Melott appears to take the role of the great producer Harold "Hal" Prince and often plays the straight man.

The men, minus Fainer, have an almost surreal quartet in the politically incorrect "Pretty Lady." And the final conversation medley can only be described as a tour de force.

The real heroes, however, are pianists Joshua Horsch (who also serves as music director) and Christina Lalog. There is no orchestra, and the two pianos are placed in the center of the stage action. Horsch and Lalog go with the flow of the onstage business, providing as smooth and seamless a background as can be expected while effortlessly tackling two hours of notes.

No, it isn't especially profound or comparable to last year's chamber opera, "Little Women." But it is a joyful way to pass the time, and it's impeccably presented.

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